Thought Bubble goes to WizardWorld Chicago!

Everyone has heard of a convention. Most commonly used in reference to business conventions, over the recent years the prominence of media and entertainment conventions have risen tremendously. San Diego Comic Con and it’s sister New York Comic Con, the PAX conventions and E3 are the places where new comic movies and TV shows are announced, comic artists, sci-fi writers and geeks from all paths come together to engage in a festival celebrating all facets of nerdy culture. These conventions have gotten so big that the opening day for ticket sales is often the last day – selling out within a matter of hours, if not minutes.

But you don’t have to sell all of your possessions and camp out in front of Hall H for a week prior to the convention in order to actually experience a comic book convention. There are a few decent conventions in the state of Illinois that happen throughout the Summer. This last week was was Wizard World Chicago, held at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, a four-day event filled with panels, comic retailers and and entertainment guests.

In recent years the convention has been in a content flux: with the advent of the Chicago Comicbook and Entertainment Expo, the two big comic publisher giants have backed out of Wizard World Chicago. In its stead, the convention has shifted to accommodate a larger artists alley, more independent publishers and a hefty amount of entertainment programming. While Marvel wasn’t there in an official capacity as a publisher, several of the celebrity guests were from the year’s big Marvel productions: Guardians of the Galaxy stars Dave Bautista, Karen Gillian and Michael Rooker, Captain America: The Winter Soldier stars Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan, as well as X-Men: Days of Future Past actors Evan Peters, Booboo Stewart and Shawn Ashmore. Comics alone had a marked decrease in their presence from when I went a few years prior. At the same time, though, the space used for the convention has practically exploded, sprawling out over nearly four separate halls as opposed to the two back in 2012.
There is still a wealth of things to be found at the convention – quite a few vintage resellers too still, though in decline from the last couple of years. It all depends on what you’re interested in, though there is still a wide variety of things to find at Wizard World Chicago. I would argue that there’s even more at this point to check out. As always, I recommend checking out their website and signing up to find out when tickets go on presale next year if you’re interested.

Author: Jes Schroeder

Jes Schroeder is a freelance illustrator and creator of the online graphic novel Stacked Hand. When she's not reading comic books, she's usually playing at alchemy with tea.
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